[Prevalence of allergic diseases in the elderly]

A population aged 65 and over has been increasing in many countries, including Mexico. Allergic diseases are common in this age group, asthma prevalence has been reported between 2 and 17% in elderly people. There is no data about allergic diseases prevalence in elderly Mexican people.

To know the prevalence of some allergic diseases, allergen sensitization and total IgE serum concentration in a sample of subjects older than 60 years residents in Mexico City.

We included 333 elderly subjects, were included 281 females (84%) and 52 males, with an age-average of 67.2 +/- 5.4, who were attending a social security recreative center. Medical files were made to each one elderly subject, including atopic personal history; skin tests were performed with 10 allergens, histamine and negative controls; and total serum IgE was measured by ELISA. Analysis was made with descriptive statistics, Spearman's coefficient and chi square.

Allergic diseases were present in 10.8% of the subjects, asthma in 3.6%, allergic rhinitis in 3.6%, urticaria in 2.7%, atopic dermatitis in 0.6% and allergic conjunctivitis in 0.3%, 24% had data of adverse drug reactions and 6.9% referred venom insect hypersensitivity. Skin tests results were positive in 84 subjects (25.2%). In the group of 60-69 years it was observed a significant increase in IgE concentration (p < 0.01), we didn't find a significant correlation between IgE levels and both allergic symptoms and skin tests results.

The prevalence of allergic diseases, total IgE levels and allergen sensitization in elderly people were similar to studies in other countries, but with a lower pattern than in younger Mexican population.